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Sunday, 27 May 2012

In
1979 Alien
stunned audiences. More than 30 years later and despite repeated viewings Alien continues
to stun audiences. If the key moment of World War 2 is the Battle of Stalingrad1 then every story should have its key moment.
The monsters of old – Dracula, Frankenstein and the werewolf – were
supernatural. The monsters of (the then) present were allegorical; as seen in
(then) contemporary films The Last House on the Left 1972, The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre1974, The
Hills Have Eyes1977.
The monster in Alien is
an extraterrestrial parasite. The facehugger is the embryonic harbinger of a tortured
labour. The chestburster delivers a deformity guilty of matricide.

It is stunning.

It is a key moment in cinema and not just Alien. It
will forever be stunning in the history of this world.

... How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!

(Julius Ceasar) William
Shakespeare

Congratulations Sir Ridley.

knighted for services rendered to Hollywood

Since
I started this blog I have watched a magnitude of horror films. I have
researched articles. I have made contact with the global fan base. I have
expanded my knowledge. It informs my opinion. I am learning. Where hitherto I
had discounted Alienas sci-fi
I now understand its true species. The sci-fi serves as terrain in Alien. To
create an analogy – the land does not make a people; it is the people who make
a land. To wit Alienis
horror in a sci-fi environment. It is a ‘haunted house in space’2.

Prior to Alienspace
travel was depicted as expedition by cruise ships (2001: A Space Odyssey1968, Star
Wars1977). The
Nostromo is a haulage vehicle crewed by a blue collar workforce. All
militaristic and nationalistic glamour of flyboys (Star Trek: The Motion
Picture1979) is gone. The future is as
bright as the stars for the (Leyland) corporation. It is as dark as the void
for the working poor. These are the slaves who built Pharaoh’s pyramids; the
peasants who tilled the land for the owners; the miners in Virginia3; the fishermen in Somalia4; the ‘truckers in space’.

the miners in Virginia

The Nostromo aesthetic and the character profile
of the crew were so resonant it has become the paradigm for movies set in space
(Event Horizon1997, Pitch Black2000, Pandorum2009). John Carpenter’s The Thing1982 takes place in the
polar desert of Antarctica; that is to say outer space on terra firma.
It is referred to as a remake of The
Thing from Another World 1951 but the film is a more faithful adaptation of the novella Who Goes There?5. That
notwithstanding Carpenter’s film uses Alien’s
template so much so it could be referred to as Alien2.

The characters in The
Thing have no backstory. There is no subplot. The monster is awe inspiring and had
hitherto not been seen in cinema. The crew is unarmed and
have to improvise weaponry. The monster is parasitic. If the only influence Alien had
on cinema was The
Thing then this alone would make it a classic. I urge the
reader to watch both movies back-to-back.

Alien belongs
to Ridley Scott but he is no auteur. A head of state has his kitchen cabinet.
The manager of a football club has his coaching staff. Alien had
HR Giger.

Alien breeder

Every horror film is dependent on its monster
– A Nightmare on Elm
Street 1984, Halloween1978, The Exorcist1973. Giger’s creation
remains unique. One of the reasons for this is that it is not humanoid in
appearance, character or motion. It is a testament to that man’s imagination that
no one has come close to replicating such shock and awe in 30 years. The xenomorph
remains a mystique. It is a true beast.

Alien had
Dan O’Bannon6. Before he wrote the
former he wrote Dark
Star1974 directed
by John Carpenter. He has since wrote (and directed) The Return of the Living Dead1985 and Total Recall1990. He died in 2009.
R.I.P.

Alien had
a cast everyone remembers. The Nostromo’s seven-man crew included two women neither
of who wore short skirts or flicked their hair. They were plausible and
credible. To emphasise the point of how good the cast was – all of them are
still working today. Horror as a genre does not create movie stars. The
exception to this is Halloween1978. The other exception
is Alien.

If Hollywood had created Romeo and Juliet they would have made a sequel and a prequel. 20th
Century Fox made Alien and
they made more than enough sequels to obliterate all goodwill. Thus it is time
for the prequel. In 2010 Universal insisted their (then) forthcoming The Thing2011 was
a prequel to John Carpenter’s masterpiece. I denounced it as a remake.

Every
year I put on a new label. One year it’s beer. Then the next year we call it ‘light
beer’. And then the next year it’s ‘cold’, ‘filtered’ or ‘dry’. You know what?
We can’t make enough of that shit.

The
Larry Sanders Show (218)

Sir
Ridley Scott is at the end of his career because he’s at the end of his
lifespan. Prometheus 2012 is a flail at
legacy. His 35 year career boasts box office success (Black Hawk Down 2001, Gladiator2000) and fanboy
favouritism (Blade Runner1981). That does not
constitute a great filmmaker or a great career. Despite Thelma & Louise 1991 he’s no Spike Lee,
Oliver Stone, Martin Scorcese, or even David Fincher. The fact is Scott’s
turkeys account for more than his triumphs. He’s a punch drunk boxer; a mid-table
football team. He’s a commercial filmmaker.

Despite Scott’s protestations Prometheus is
a prequel to Alien –
otherwise it wouldn’t get made. 20th Century Fox and Ridley Scott
can fool their fanbase as much as they like. The fact is this time around there
is no Dan O’Bannon and there is no HR Giger. The white noise of marketing,
trailers, clips and advertising have revealed the new film to be no more than a
camouflaged cash grab. To those of us not submissive to Blade Runner it
will be another 3D light and magic show.

Last year Universal showed that their remake
of The Thing
could not destroy the legacy of John Carpenter’s opus. This year Rupert
Murdoch, 20th Century Fox and Sir Ridley Scott will not be able to
destroy the legacy of HR Giger and Dan O’Bannon.

Friday, 18 May 2012

The Avengers has
grossed a believe-it-or-not $1billion1
– and it’s only 14 days since its release. That makes The Hunger Games2012 with its $519million
take look like slim pickings. Moreover Hollywood still has The Amazing Spider Man2012 and The Dark Knight Rises 2012 to look forward to.
It’s going to be a cashbox summer.

Meanwhile in the real world horror fans can
take refuge in theatres that find the screen space to show the following films.
The selection criteria are buzz, star power and story potential. They are the
best of the next four months2.

Hollywood has a tendency to feast on ingénues
and then to cast them asunder. Lindsay Lohan is today’s cautionary tale but what
if said ingénue is a man? His name would be Tim Burton.

Hollywood cannot cast him aside which may
well be a shame because this man-child refuses to grow up. Edward Scissorhands1990 was cute in its day
but post 9-11, post Financial Crises and with Burton over 50 years old you’ve
got to be kidding. Even teenagers laugh at emo.

The Road[May
11 Limited]

J-Horror is not yet dead. It’s alive and well
in Asia; that’s the Philippines in the case of The
Road2012. After
the bait-and-switch curtain fluttering of The
Woman in Black2012
it’s a about time a ghost story was made by the experts.

The Chernobyl
Diaries[May 25]

The Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster was a
bigger story in 1986 than Japan was last year. The effects and impact of the
accident are grist to the horror mill. The Wrong
Turn series could easily relocate here. This is inspired
premise. Genre storytelling par excellence is to be expected.

The Pact[May
25 Video-On-Demand]

At first glance this film may look formulaic
but the best formulae solve the equation. The horror genre thrives on formula.
There’s a moment in the trailer that pushes The Pact into eureka.

The American websites are hailing this as a
Cuban anti-Castro zombie horror. It’s as if they’re predicting that upon
release the revolution will fail and their version of democracy – capitalism
and racism – will colonise the republic.

Wrong.

The days of Havana as an outpost of Las Vegas
are confined to 20th century history. ¡Viva la revolución!

ParaNorman[Aug
17]

In a forever evolving technological medium
and a constantly shifting culture this is the kind of film that befits the
horror genre.

This is the kind of film Tim Burton wishes he
could make.

The Possession[Aug
31]

Formerly known as Dibbuk
Box this film is a long time coming to theatres. The name
change is probably due to marketing which is a shame because the legend of the
Dibbuk box3 is a talking point in
itself. Film stars Kyra Sedgewick – an actress who is one degree from Kevin
Bacon.

V/H/S[Aug
31 VOD]

Regular readers are aware of the admiration
Thrill Fiction has for Ti West. One day one of his films is bound to make a lot
of money; the day after that he is bound to make a big budget horror film.
Before then there is V/H/S – bound to be a highlight of the year.

August
looks like a better month than October right now. It finally looks like 2012
will deliver. If not then at least the trailers look good.